1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to vehicle parking systems and in particular to a parking system which automatically identifies a vehicle approaching the entrance or exit lanes to the parking facility and generates an appropriate set of responses such as opening the gate, illuminating a fee display or other sign information, posting accounting information and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
There are many different types of semiautomatic parking systems for vehicles such as motor vehicles including monthly pass cards, automatic ticket dispensers, and the like. In systems where time accounting is required for parking that is subject to charge periods, a card having an electronic memory is used where each memory location can be individually and irreversibly written in order to represent a time unit credit allocated to the holder of the card. Other systems use an electronic memory and a card reader, a portable terminal carried by a parking checker, a card having a magnetic track containing a confidential identification number, and a label for sticking to the windshield of a vehicle with the label bearing information that is unambiguously related to the information stored in the card. Still other systems use capacitive cards and reader systems. Some systems use an automatic fee determining system including means to totalize the amount of coins accepted by the system. Such system includes means for calculating the fee due from a parking ticket. The customer then inserts coins into a coin receptor and a "vend" is produced only when the total value of coins at least equals the calculated fee due. Other systems have an entrance station for dispensing a coded card and initiating opening of an entrance gate and an exit station for receiving the card, sensing any lapsed time, computing a toll at a predetermined time rate, collecting the correct toll, and initiating opening of the gate in response to the collection.
These systems all require the intervention of a human operator or an interaction between the vehicle occupant and a device such as a ticket dispenser and the like.